More bellringing

We were actually up in London as SWMBO was doing some ringing with the Guild of Medical Ringers. The first church was Chelsea Old Church where Sir Thomas More rebuilt one of the chapels where he and his family worshipped regularly.

Chelsea 2

Looks like Mr & Mrs Shakespeare have moved to Chelsea.
Why can't they park their cars the right way round?
Priceless all the same.

Chelsea

This is "Boy on a Dolphin" by David Wynne (1975) which stands on the Chelsea embankment opposite Albert bridge. Rather than the sculpture, I think I'd prefer the car below...

Kensington

This is the famous (& expensive?) Bibendum restaurant in Kensington. The stained glass windows are copies of the originals and an appeal has gone out to locate them so they can be reinstated. Apparently they knew where they were until recently when they 'went missing'.

A rack of unused 'Boris Bikes'. We did see one in use during the day however.

Waterside Theatre Aylesbury

Last night we went to the new Aylesbury Waterside Theatre to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The theatre has only been open for two months so we thought we should go and take a look.
As we arrived quite early, we went to The White Hart (Wetherspoons) across the road which was itself only five months old. Very impressive. Amazingly, I had some of my Wetherspoons vouchers with me so was able to get a discount of 50p per pint. The whole place was very comfortable and the food looked good too.
The theatre was 'splendid' with bars and toilets on all levels and very nice lighting in the foyer. There's a lot of wooden blocks used in the decoration so it looks a bit like a giant Jenga construction which could be about to topple over at any moment. The auditorium is very good with comfortable seating and (from what I could judge) good acoustics.
Although the stage seems large enough, my only criticism is that the proscenium arch is not really big enough! There were several members of the orchestra hidden from the audience, and I would assume that the sound of their instruments was also somewhat hidden from the audience.
Would we go again? Probably. It's a bit of a way to drive, especially in the winter months and at £24.50 the tickets are a little pricey. The main thing that puts me off is the £2 booking fee PER TICKET!

Redbourn fireworks 3

There we are. All over for another year.
It was a bigger and better display this year as we had been promised.
The weather was perfect with no wind at all.
Some years we get a donation made to the museum from the small profit made - fingers crossed.

Redbourn fireworks 2

The trouble with these organised displays is that you don't have the same fun you used to.
Years ago (when I was a boy!) almost every garden had their own display, and the first job on 6th November was to go round the garden and pick up all the dead rockets and retrieve the sticks - because they might come in useful, of course.
Now you have to go to Poundland and buy a huge pack of plant canes for £1 - how times change etc. etc. etc...

Redbourn fireworks

I usually watch the majority of the Redbourn firework display through the viewfinder of my camera - and this year was no exception.
What about a few posts showing some of my usual mediocre photos?

Saving the world - again!

Are you one of those people...

...who like to stop the microwave with just one second of cooking time remaining, just to make out you are a top bomb disposal expert who has just saved the world and defused the bomb with one second of the countdown remaining?

Of course you are!

Kubrick 3

There were quite a few models on show as apparently Stanley Kubrick liked to use them to plan out lighting schemes and camera angles

This is from the Psycho shower scene, with the axeman

This is a model of the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey

A very nice touch was this 'monolith' they had reproduced in the wildlife garden behind the museum - very effective